'Being good is not enough to run a state'

BANGALORE: Three chief ministers in four years is what BJP's debut in governance will be remembered for. With a change of guard imminent, it's casting around for reasons to justify it.
The primary argument is that ideology alone doesn't make a party or a leader tick in politics. There should be a robust combination of caste and killer instinct in a leader, which party insiders feel chief minister D V Sadananda Gowda lacks."Gowda is a good, harmless person, and a stickler for ideology. That's just not enough to run a state," they said.
The aggressive posturing of former chief minister BS Yeddyurappa who is batting for Jagadish Shettar to replace Gowda is being justified that's is not a Lingayat vs Vokkaliga power struggle. For any party aiming to rule, a majority caste has to be the base while other castes can add the numbers. Of the 120 BJP MLAs, about 60 are Lingayats.
The BJP leadership has realized it cannot break the JD(S) stranglehold over the Vokkaligas, while the Congress has the support of a fair share of backward classes, minorities and scheduled castes and tribes. The Lingayats, who in the '90s were with former CM Ramakrishna Hegde, latched on to BJP later. Since the nomination of Shettar, a Lingayat from north Karnataka, came from Yeddyurappa, the party feels the latter will shelve his tantrums in future.
Also, examples are being cited of how the Congress has been bruised whenever it has stifled popular leaders like Mamata Banerjee, Sharad Pawar and Jagan Mohan Reddy. "In Uttar Pradesh, after former CM Kalyan Singh was marginalized, the party has never grown with neither the Yadavs, Kshatriyas or Brahmins supporting us,'' sources said. The BJP has realized that independent MLA B Sriramulu going away from its fold has cost them the Bellary district and the backward classes Naiks' votes.
With 2008 assembly elections in Karnataka setting new benchmarks of money and muscle power for a victory, contesting an assembly seat now costs nothing less than Rs 30 crore. Though Gowda was the BJP state president in 2008, funding for the party which won 110 seats came from Yeddyurappa and the Bellary Reddys. The leadership is also aware that Gowda won't not cause problems for the party. "He won't create a parallel power structure," sources said.